London Irish have been offered help from boxing legend Barry McGuigan as they
fight to remain in the Aviva Premiership this season.

Brian Smith’s side have been labelled relegation favourites but the coach is determined that his club rediscover their “fighting Irish roots”.

To underline the point, he took his squad on a surprise trip to McGuigan’s gym in Battersea Park in London to see Commonwealth super-bantamweight champion Carl Frampton spar ahead of his International Boxing Federation world title eliminator against Jeremy Parodi in Belfast next month.

They watched Frampton work out with McGuigan’s son Shane, who trained former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff for his one-off fight last year, and several of his players seized the opportunity to have a short sparring session with Frampton.

The visit culminated in the offer of support from the McGuigans to the Irish squad.

“I know last year wasn’t a great year for them but they are a great squad of players and if they can get their head right, they can do big things,” said McGuigan Snr, who spoke to the squad about his famous WBA featherweight win over Eusebio Pedroza at Loftus Road in 1985.

“If this is going to give them a little bit of a lift at all, that is the objective. Brian wants to make the club more Irish and they are all incredible-looking athletes and I really hope they can gel and play as a team and I want to encourage them as much as I can and really help them.

“If they want to come back here and have a bit of fun and do a bit of padwork and help them with their cardiovascular fitness, Shane will get them into shape.”

McGuigan Jnr, who himself was a former amateur boxing champion, has devised a ‘McGuigan Method’ training program and hopes it could help the Irish squad improve their fitness and conditioning.

“We would also be keen to help with rehab work for those players coming back from injury and their training routine, we hope we can help them succeed,” said Shane.

Smith, the former England assistant coach who represented both Ireland and Australia as a player, said he hoped the visit to listen to McGuigan and see Belfast boxer Frampton in action would inspire his squad.

“The boys love their fights and the hard work has been during the pre-season and this is a bit of a treat for the boys to see Carl and shake hands with him because we believe he is going to win a world title,” Smith said. “We also feel the McGuigans are part of our family. Our boys have nothing but admiration for Carl.

"It is a different game to ours but Barry was talking about the mental aspect as well and we know we have got big challenges ahead of us but like Carl we will roll our sleeves up and get stuck in and give it our best shot.

“We play with the shamrock on our shirt and there are a lot of teams around the world who do that. There is something about the fighting Irish that we can identify with. As a club we want to be honest, hard-working and true to what we would say is the fighting Irish spirit.”

Watching Frampton in action from close quarters and listening to details of his training schedule for his fight certainly appeared to leave a lasting impression on London Irish captain Declan Danaher.

“It is great, it was a big surprise to us to come here after training. Every week we have a little video clip of someone who is Irish and Barry was the first one and it is inspiring stuff.

“When you got out and train, it makes you want to do it to the best of our ability. I have enjoyed it because I am one of the older ones so I can remember Barry fighting in London in 1985 and 1986, sitting up with my dad and watching it.

“You get to the stage when you understand what it takes to be a professional sportsman but for some of the younger guys coming through, they don’t quite get that.

“But when you look at the dedication that Carl had put in – he had 150 amateur fights even before he turned professional – and hopefully he wins in three weeks’ time and gets a shot at the world title. Some of our boys went into the ring and you can see the work they need to put in!”

As for Frampton, he hopes to be able to repay the compliment and watch Irish in action this season. “It was great to have the boys down,” he said. It was a great atmosphere in the gym, it was not just Shane and I beating away at each other in the ring. It is nice to show them what we do here. I am a wee bit of a show-off so I actually perform better when I have people watching me!

“I played a little bit of rugby at school and enjoyed it and I like watching it. I am an Ulster fan and it is a tough man’s game. They are all hard men. If you want to get to the top in any sport you have to train hard, do what you are told and train smart as well. There needs to be logic behind everything you do and I am sure the lads will do well this year.”